The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for power saving in Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). In particular, the present invention relates to power saving in beacon-enabled WPANs.
WPANs are typically implemented by small, low-cost wireless devices. A feature of such devices is their low power consumption, which should allow battery powered devices to operate substantially maintenance free for long periods of time. However, in beacon-enabled WPAN implementations, such as IEEE 802.15.4, a beacon is required to be periodically received by network devices. Since network devices must be capable of wireless data reception in order to receive a beacon a current consumption of those devices is thereby increased.
It is an object of embodiments of the invention to at least mitigate the above-mentioned problem of the prior art.
It is an aim of embodiments of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus which reduces current consumption in WPAN devices.